


The Brain Is Wider Than the Sky

by lirin



Category: Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
Genre: Chocolate Box Treat, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 02:12:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9636308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: François is in the library, tinkering with the printing press, when his newspaper receives its first advertisement.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [APgeeksout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/gifts).



François is in the library when Missy comes to place his newspaper’s first advertisement. Not that anyone would be surprised by that—he spends nearly all his time in the library. Right now, he’s fiddling with the printing press; the gears have been showing a tendency to slip after a couple pages and he needs to fix that before he can attempt a fifty-sheet print run. Missy comes up behind him, moves the pile of tattered science fiction magazines he’d left on the stool, and sits down to watch. She’s brought her cat with her—Angie or Agatha or something, he can’t remember. It sits quietly in her lap, batting at a flower she’s tucked in her hair. 

Missy is one of the lucky ones, the new generation that has had a chance to grow up in some semblance of stability. Ten years ago, she wouldn’t have been able to wander more than a half mile from home like she was now, nor to see as many books in one location as he had here. When he was her age, on the other hand—but then that doesn’t bear thinking about.

Missy holds out the scrap of paper on which she has painstakingly written the information about the kittens she has available to give away. François takes it gently, looks it over.

“Why do you want to advertise to people outside the town?” he asks. “Couldn’t you just give the kittens to people who live near you?”

“Almost everybody in our encampment has one of Agatha’s kittens already,” Missy says. “And besides, I want to help people farther away. I’ve never traveled farther than a mile from home, but with this I can make a difference in the life of someone I’ve never met. I want to be part of something bigger than myself!”

“Don’t we all, Missy,” François says. “Don’t we all.” It’s not exactly true—there are plenty of people in New Petoskey who don’t care about anyone other than themselves. He can’t really even blame them; the world is still a dangerous enough place that it’s understandable they wouldn’t want to let anyone else in. But it’s Missy’s attitude, not theirs, that gives him hope for the future. And he’s making his newspaper to give them hope in return.

When Missy leaves, François turns back to his sketched layout for the paper. The advertisement will go on the fourth page, next to his planned column for trading and bartering. He’d better start asking around for items to fill that column. He flips through the layout. Yes, that will about fill page 4. But unless he gets more barter offers than he expects, it won’t quite fill it. There will be room for a short text from his collection. Not enough for a short story or a play, but a speech or a poem would fit.

Dickinson would be good, he thinks. He wanders back into the depths of the library to pick just the right poem.


End file.
